Kitchen Ideas

We're getting closer to choosing all of the finishes for The Gracie. We're leaning towards replicating the kitchens from the project we did last year at 1133 6th St NW (The Grayson). These kitchens work really well because they're modern but they also fit in with the rest of the unit, which has a lot of traditional elements. Although this building does not have the original floors, it will have really great new oak ones which will match these cabinets perfectly. We're also considering staining the floors a darker color like the ones from 2106 10th St. Here are some pictures from The Grayson:

This is the kitchen with the glass backspash.  We did this in units 1 and 3.

This is the same kitchen scheme but in the basement.

This was the same granite, cabinets and floors, but we used a marble backsplash in this unit and the penthouse.

This is a better view of the same kitchen.

Construction Update- The Gracie

We've been working hard at the two condo projects that we currently have under construction. I don't have any good pictures today of 2431 Ontario Road, but I was able to take some pictures at The Gracie (1470 Chapin St NW). Tomorrow, the electrician is going to start running his wires and the HVAC guy is coming to measure for his ducts. We're hoping to have the roof on the top of the building by the end of next week. Also, we've been looking hard for another project and we're going to ramp up our marketing efforts in order to get our name out there.

The basement is totally framed out and the plumbing waste lines are finished.  The plumbers are coming back Weds to run the supply lines.

In the back of the building, the first floor of the new rear wall is complete.  The guys got slowed down because they had to set up the scaffolding, but now they're moving quickly.

Upstairs, the right wall is complete up to the mezzanine level, and the left wall is getting closer each day.

Construction Update- The Gracie

Lots of progress this week at the Gracie Condos. We got the basement concrete finished so now we can frame up unit #1. Also, we can now focus on building the new top level so we can finally top out on the building.

We're also changing the formatting of the blog so it will a look a little different for the next few entries.

The basement concrete is totally done.  We're really happy with all the headroom- close to 9 Ft!

We gave the concrete a night to harden and then got to work yesterday on framing up the new walls.

The masons began work on the near rear wall.  The back yard is a mess!  We got jammed up because the dumpster was full and it was blocked in with hundreds of cinderblocks.  We were able to get it out and the back yard cleaned up this morning.

The Gracie Condominium- Moving Along

Our project in Columbia Heights is moving along really well. We finished framing out the middle two units, and now we're working on building the other two condos. The basement had to be dug down and we'll be pouring the new concrete slab on Thursday morning. The top unit is a whole new floor, and the masons have been working hard to build up the walls with cinder blocks.

We'll be meeting tomorrow with a cabinet designer and we should be ordering the kitchen cabinets by the end of the week. We're leaning towards a darker espresso color but we're looking at several options.

In the rear of the building, we decided to remove the old brick and just build a new block wall. The new block will be significantly stronger. Also, the new window and door openings were all in new places, so it would have been a very difficult process to cut and rebuild all of the openings with the old brick. The new wall will make it much easier to do so.

After the wall was taken down, the concrete guys worked today to install the rebar in the new footer.

This picture was taken over the weekend before the rain, but you can see that they are starting to make progress with the new walls. They had to take down a lot of the old brick because it was loose. Once they got to a point that was stable, they reinforced it with concrete and rebar and then started with the new blocks.

This is another house around the corner that uses a very similar paint palette to what we will use on our building. Our color is a slightly less dark shade of tan.

This is at our other condo project (The Charles Condo) but it's a great picture of our new signs. They were printed and installed last week. Definitely an upgrade over the previous banners.

1470 Chapin St- Full Speed Ahead

We've been taking advantage of the nice weather to get a lot of the exterior work done. One of the biggest tasks was removing the roof because we are adding another full floor. In order to do this, we had to remove the existing peak, which was quite a production.

First, we had to tear off all of the shingles. The structure was framed like a tee pee with a common point. After all of the shingles were removed, the carpenters removed the back side of the peak and tied ropes around the remaining part.



Then, very slowly, they pulled the ropes back and pulled the peak back into the building. I was anticipating more of a "bang" but it was surprisingly smooth and quiet.



In the rear and basement, several workers have been digging trenches in the basement for the new plumbing and waterproofing system. After all of the dirt was removed, the trenches were filled with gravel from huge sacks in the backyard.



Inside, the framers finished the third unit and installed the steps. We used to make the steps ourselves but we found a great supplier near Baltimore that can build them faster and stronger in a factory. Now we can install them in less than a day, wheras it used to take almost a week. Not bad!

1470 Chapin St- The Gracie Condominium

Lots going on at our project in Columbia Heights. This week, the building was officially named "The Gracie Condominiums." In construction news, we're framing out the second floor and getting ready to go up with the new third floor. In the basement, the excavation contractor started work this morning removing the old concrete slab and about a foot and a half of dirt in order to get taller ceilings.

This was the back of the building earlier in the week.

Over the last few days, the masons worked to cut a new opening for the basement unit patio door. It was also put there so the bobcat could get into the basement to remove dirt. However, when they came yesterday to start construction, the bobcat wouldn't fit! It took the masons the rest of the day to make the opening 1 foot wider for today.

This morning, the bobcat came and fit into the new opening with no problem.

This was the progress by the end of the day. There was a lot of brick and dirt in the backyard, so it took half of the day just to clear it out enough to get inside. They were able to take one dump truck full of inside dirt today, and then they'll be back tomorrow and monday.

Also, the cinderblocks were delivered to start with the new party walls for the top unit addition. They will begin putting up these walls over the upcoming week.

2431 Ontario Rd- Work Starts

We just started demo this week on our next 4 unit building in Adams Morgan. The existing house needs extensive demo and we're working now to tear out the non-load bearing walls. The best part of the house is the view, which we can enjoy from the roof now, although it will be much more spectacular when we build the penthouse unit.

Here are the "before" pictures of the house.

The house had some neat trim on the main floor, but unfortunately it had already been torn out of the upper level, so we were unable to preserve it.

Here's the living room:

The kitchen was pretty beat up.